Literacy – Spanning the US: Polk Co FL :: Palm Beach Co FL :: Santa Barbara Co CA

Literacy:  Spanning the U.S.

READ Polk Nurtures Adult Literacy

The Ledger: 8.08.2014 by Steve Chapman

Are your children having a hard time learning to read? Did your daughter graduate high school but still needs remedial help? Is your husband lacking the necessary reading skills to make it in the workplace?

READ Polk can play a role in supporting learning on all levels by helping adults become better educated and helping parents to become more involved with their child's education.

In 1999, the U.S. Congress defined literacy as: "The ability to read, write and communicate in English, to compute, solve problems, and use technology at a level of proficiency necessary to succeed in today's world." This also means succeeding and being self-sufficient in today's complex economy. READ Polk, along with the work the councils do, engages these adults and helps them achieve their goals to become more productive citizens, employees and parents.

Here are some facts about literacy:

More than 18 percent of Polk County adults 25 and older have low literacy skills.  READ MORE !

Glades-area libraries help adults learn to read

Florida Newszap: 8.11.2014 by Melissa Beltz, The Sun

Retha Pourch has worked in the fields for most of her life. She said she could read OK, but her ability stopped at big words.

“When I first started, I used to get frustrated when I would try to read. I couldn’t get the words,” said Pourch. “But now, I can read.”

Pourch attributes her success to the Palm Beach County Library’s Belle Glade Branch, whose Adult Literacy Program brought her together with tutor Mary Catherine Luikart.

“Every time I come, Mary is here and she teaches me a lot. The words I can’t get right, she’ll say, read the sentence, but skip that word and come back. And I do that and I read it,” said Pourch.

“And does that ever make me feel good,” said Luikart, who has been tutoring Pourch at the Belle Glade library for almost a year. “There’s nothing better than volunteering and helping someone.

Luikart taught second, third and fifth grade in Palm Beach County before she retired.

But the great thing about the library’s program is anyone can become a tutor, said Adult Literacy Coordinator Elizabeth Braunworth.  READ MORE !

The true power of reading

Lompoc Record: 8.13.2014 / Opinion-Editorial

When was the last time a 20-something clerk used his or her math skills to figure how much change you get from that 20-dollar bill?

It’s probably been a while, because modern cash registers do the math for the cashier.

To be sure, technology has changed the way we live. It won’t be long until computers drive our cars for us, while we’re busy texting friends and family.

But there is one basic human requirement that technology has not eliminated — the need to read.

Literacy is a basic necessity — a building block, really — for education, and education is a basic requirement and building block for a better life, especially here in the United States. If you can’t read, you are, for all practical purposes, sentenced to a life of toil and trouble.

That national problem is brought home by sobering statistics about illiteracy in Santa Barbara County. Officials at the Central Coast Literacy Council reckon there are at least 76,000 fundamentally illiterate people in Santa Barbara County, out of a baseline population of about 430,000.

Even more sobering for those of you reading this editorial, more than half of the people in that illiterate population live here in North County.  READ MORE !